- Is the Magic lost ? -

I think we have it so much better these days both as listeners and composers/musicians.

Forums like this are great for finding recommendations for the best vintage and contemporary recordings and you're less likely to spend your money on garbage just because of the name on the cover or because it is considered Electronic Music in a book or magazine.

I was fortunate enough to be in a job in 1995 which gave me access to a Pro-Tools system. Today, I have a Digidesign M-Box sitting on top of my home PC running Pro-Tools LE and Reason Adapted. My Nord Micro does heaps more than my 9-unit Roland System 100m used to do, in a repeatable, reliable and programmable way.

We've never had it so good !

One indicator which helps you sort the wheat from the chaff is to see if an album has been released on a genuine pressed CD on a genuine label. This means that some third party has invested their own money and expects to see a return on it. It's not a Golden Rule by any means but it's a good starting point. (Disclaimer: I've heard some great home-burnt CD-R releases and some truly awful Silver Disc releases)

I suspect most of us here discovered EM when we were adolescents and are now approaching or well into middle age. I'm afraid that the things which held a single-minded obsession for us when growing up can never hold that important a place again. It's just life <shrug>. So while that 'Magic' may have gone, we can still get deep pleasure from the oldies and make discoveries of great new works which we'll return to many times over the coming years. I find I'm playing Redshift discs as often as my entire EM collection these days and they're probably the only band that I would travel large distances to see.

Thanks for the original article and the thoughtful replies.

To be honest, I haven't read all the replies to the initial post. But I've carefully what Glenn wrote. I suppose that it is pretty clear what it is in his mind.

Glenn, I can tell you this by my personal conviction: Don't think in terms of gear and the cost of it. Start to think in terms of music. It was the music that has touched you then, it was not about the instruments! And it is the music what you're actually missing, not the plain sound.
Cheaper and easier to use instruments will of course seduce more people to fiddle around with it. It is obvious that the average quality of that output won't be like it used to be in times in that making and RECORDING music was much more difficult and expensive than nowadays.

Painting for example is, spoken just in terms of procedure, method and implements, something nearly everybody is able to do - very unlike to the times a couple of hundered years ago. And now there are millions of more or less 'professional' painters out there. But still there are only a few works of art that are really affecting.

This is my simple recommendation to all of you, who migh think that the magic disappeared somehow: Look out for gifted musicians and unique and innovative artists instead of weird musical gear. There is still a lot of magic to explore!

To be honest I hardly know anyone who believes owning more gear makes you a better musician. The music buying public invariably don't care.
On a similar note, I have to disagree with Ren

The focus on gear in the original essay/article was just an example about how more music of this genre is available. Just like the internet has helped, the availability of the instruments have helped getting more music out. It is never about gear or instruments or tools, it is about music, but as much more music is released now (partially due to the lower prices of everything involved) and you try to cover some of it, you can get filled up.

Obviously the article was my personal experience. However, the media and entertainment explosion will have effects on us all, and it is a huge topic!